1. Field
The present disclosure generally relates to a multi-chip module (MCM) which accommodates semiconductor chips. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to an MCM that includes a compressible structure that maintains alignment between components in the MCM.
2. Related Art
As integrated-circuit (IC) technology continues to scale to smaller critical dimensions, it is increasingly difficult for existing interconnection technologies to provide suitable communication characteristics, such as: high bandwidth, low power, reliability and low cost. Engineers and researchers are investigating chip stacking in multi-chip modules (MCMs) to address these problems, and to enable future high-density, high-performance systems.
However, because MCMs include multiple chips, it is all the more important to solve the so-called ‘known-good die’ problem. In particular, manufacturing yields can be improved (and cost can be reduced) by ensuring that only good semiconductor dies or chips are included in an MCM. This can be achieved by increasing the amount of testing at the die level. Because of cost and test-time limitations, this additional testing typically needs to be performed at the speed of the ICs at the wafer-level, which can be technically challenging. Alternatively, the manufacturing yield can be improved if the MCM is assembled in a remateable fashion, so that bad chips can be swapped out with good ones either during assembly and final testing, or even in the field.
Furthermore, it is often difficult to position and maintain the alignment of remateable components in MCMs. This is a problem because the degrees of freedom that allow the components to be remateable often result in misalignment between components, which can degrade inter-component communication in an MCM.
Hence, what is needed is an MCM that does not suffer from the above-described problems.